Like Nina, Fight Privatized Censorship of Culture!

Paris, July 14th, 2011 - The illegal censorship in Germany of Nina Paley's multi-awarded movie “Sita Sings the Blues[2]” by YouTube shows how corporate enforcement of an obsolete copyright regime is bound to harm culture and freedom of expression.

German collecting society GEMA's copyright claim is illegal, since Nina Paley had cleared the rights for all the music included in her movie1. GEMA's claim is an obvious abuse of power, and shows how today's culture and copyright policies are locked by the entertainment industries and dysfunctional collective societies' doubtful practices[3]2

The present blatant abuse perfectly illustrates the risks of the “co-operation[4]” in copyright enforcement between rights holders and Internet companies. Such measures are being pushed by the copyright lobbies, for instance through the ACTA agreement[5] and must be opposed. 3

“For one well-known artist like Nina who stands for her rights, how many unknown authors, artists, remixers fall, intimidated by the automatized, privatized enforcement of an unfair copyright regime? We must urgently denounce this privatization of police and justice on the Internet by rejecting the ACTA agreement, and impose a positive reform of copyright fit for the digital age and new practices.” declared Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson of citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

1. Even if she hadn't done so, the complexity of delimiting fair use and other rights implemented as exceptions or limitations in Europe would have clearly called for the appreciation of a judge further to a fair trial.

2. In Spain, the head of SGAE has been detained with 8 other persons in an investigation for misappropriation of funds.

3. This privatization of copyright enforcement is also being actively pursued across the world by the ACTA agreement[6], the G8[7], the OECD[8], and EU Commissioner Michel Barnier's plans for future EU copyright.